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Two health care workers in Alaska experienced an allergic reaction after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which began shipping in the United States this week. At least two other people developed allergic reactions in the UK last week, again after receiving the newly licensed vaccine in the country.
News about these events has been circulating a lot online, but experts urge not to rush to conclusions that may discourage the use of vaccines to curb the pandemic. The problem has affected very few people, with hundreds of thousands of vaccinations already carried out, not counting those carried out in clinical trials in recent months.
What happened in alaska
The two adverse reactions within days of starting vaccination in the United States were reported by Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, South Alaska. A health worker, who had not previously had allergic problems, had an anaphylactic reaction about ten minutes after receiving the vaccine: she noticed the appearance of a rash on her face and torso, accompanied by difficulty breathing and an increased heart rate .
To treat the reaction, doctors gave him adrenaline, a substance often used to stop allergic reactions in an emergency. The symptoms eased almost immediately, but after a while they returned, requiring more adrenaline and steroids. The interruption of the treatment led to a new onset of symptoms and the operator was transferred as a precaution to an intensive care unit, where she remained under observation overnight. The next day, the allergic reaction seemed to have ended, but the patient was kept under observation even overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.
A second hospital worker developed a reaction to the vaccine shortly after administration: swelling of the eyes, sore throat and dizziness. Doctors forced him to take adrenaline, an antihistamine, and medicine to protect his stomach. After about an hour, the operator recovered without further problems. Doctors at the hospital do not believe that hers was a case of anaphylactic reaction as happened with the operator.
144 doses had been administered at Bartlett Regional Hospital up to the time of the two reactions. Those responsible for the facility have decided to continue with the vaccination plans for the personnel, explaining that they do not want to give the wrong message or create unnecessary alarmism.
Cases in the UK
At least a couple of people have experienced allergic reactions in the UK after receiving the first dose of the vaccine, news that was widely picked up last week as the country was the first to start vaccinating with Pfizer’s solution. BioNTech.
British health authorities have made it clear that the vaccine should not be given to anyone who has had an anaphylactic reaction after taking certain medications, vaccines or foods. However, they specified that an allergic reaction to a vaccine is a very rare event.
Pfizer later announced that the two people involved had previously had allergy problems. They both knew this and confirmed that they carry self-administered doses of epinephrine in case of a severe allergic reaction.
The rules in the United States
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the United States can only be given to people over 16 years of age. Doctors are also advised not to vaccinate people with a known medical history of allergic reactions to any of the components of the vaccine. Warnings of this type to health personnel are quite common, even in the case of vaccines that have been used for decades and with a good level of tolerability by the population.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency that deals with drugs in the United States, has asked Pfizer-BioNTech to increase controls and detections, to have more data on any allergic reaction to its vaccine.
Control
As with other vaccines, even in the case of the coronavirus vaccine, healthcare workers are advised to monitor newly vaccinated people, asking them to stay at least 15 minutes near the facilities where they received the vaccine. In this way, intervention times are reduced in the event of the remote possibility of developing allergic reactions. This system, also adopted in the Alaska hospital, allowed to intervene quickly and without major risks for patients.
Clinic tests
Before being made available to the public, a vaccine undergoes numerous tests to verify its safety and efficacy. Pfizer-BioNTech has involved more than 40,000 people and its results have been reviewed by numerous experts and regulatory authorities, before being authorized for distribution.
According to data collected in clinical trials, 0.63 percent of participants developed allergic reactions to the vaccine, compared with 0.51 percent of people who still reported allergic reactions, even if they were part of the group of control they received. a substance that does nothing (placebo).
In the group of those vaccinated in the final phase of the clinical trial, only one individual out of nearly 19,000 had an anaphylactic reaction.
Why
It is not clear what leads to allergic reactions in the case of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but there is probably no single cause, because there could be people allergic to one substance and not another, and vice versa.
The researchers speculate that one of the causes may still be polyethylene glycol, a molecule used to stabilize the vaccine. However, more knowledge will be needed and not only about Pfizer-BioNTech’s solution, but also about that of the biotech company Moderna, which uses similar systems and should be approved shortly in the United States.
Allergies and vaccines
Tens of millions of people around the world are allergic to certain foods, such as eggs and peanuts, to certain medications, or to some insect bites. In most cases, they develop limited allergic reactions that resolve on their own after a few hours. In severe cases, however, it is necessary to resort to adrenaline and other particular medications to induce the body to reduce its reaction to what triggered it. People who have had at least one episode of a severe allergic reaction usually carry emergency medicine with them.
However, just because you have an allergy does not necessarily mean that you will have an allergic reaction after receiving the vaccine. These reactions are caused by certain components, which may be harmless for some or provoke a reaction for others.
All vaccines, like any other foreign substance with which we come in contact, can induce allergic reactions in some people. However, this is very rare: in the United States it is estimated that an allergic reaction occurs every year after receiving a vaccine in one in a million cases. With the right time and the use of the right medications, a crisis can be resolved in a short time and without further consequences.
It is much easier to treat an allergic reaction than many of the diseases you are vaccinated for, including COVID-19.
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